Siriluck Fatima Chimmalee: Thai woman sentenced over dating app scam involving half a million dollars

Sugar daddies, fake businesses and broken hearts were part of a fraud in which a woman duped smitten men out of nearly half a million dollars.

Most men who join ‘Sugar Daddy’ dating websites accept they’ll fund various degrees of lavish lifestyles for younger women in exchange for romantic or sexual company.

But what they don’t sign up for, a court has heard, is being swindled out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by a ‘sugar baby’ they fell in love with and wanted to marry.

That’s exactly what happened to one of two victims of Siriluck Fatima Chimmalee, who has been jailed for fraud charges relating men she met on dating platforms.

Reading from agreed facts at Downing Centre District Court, Judge John Pickering said Chimmalee met her first victim on the ‘sugar daddy’ website, Secret Benefits.

The 47-year-old man struck up a sexual relationship with a then 28-year-old Chimmalee in June, 2019, after saying on the website that he earned $200-$250k a year and had a net worth of $10 million.

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Siriluck Fatima Chimmalee lied to men she met on dating apps. Picture: Linkedin.

The lies began immediately, with Chimmalee falsely saying she worked as a cleaner, wanted to be a barrister and lived with her cousins and friends — none of which were true.

Before long, Chimmalee had convinced her sugar daddy she was involved in trading luxury handbags and that it was a great investment opportunity for him.

After seeing a few fake text messages about the business, the man agreed to “invest” $437,000 in the imaginary opportunity.

But the only handbags that were bought were ones personally owned by Chimmalee, who spent the money on a luxury lifestyle and made withdrawals for unknown purposes, the court heard.

While falling for the financial deceit, the sugar daddy did not know he was also about to get his heart broken.

The court heard men fell for her ‘unique skill set’.

The court heard the victim was in love with Chimmalee and the pair quickly made grand plans to get married. He even gave her money to buy a ring — but that too was spent on “personal expenditure,” Judge Pickering said.

“You not only stole his heart and his beliefs in relation to getting married, you stole his money as well,” Judge Pickering said.

“It probably wasn’t the most sophisticated fraud ever … you get to know someone, you’re confident and charming, and you’ve successfully convinced him he could make lots of money”.

A second victim who fell for Chimmalee’s “unique skill set” which made her appear genuine, as Judge Pickering put it, met the fraudster through the “more regular” dating app, Happn.

This time, Chimmalee applied for a loan in the second victim’s name, which he consented to so she could invest in yet another “business idea” — an Uber-type delivery service for parcels called PickMe.

Chimmalee was sentenced at Downing Centre Court. Picture: John Grainger

The court heard he also withdrew money to help her with the business. In total, he was defrauded of $27,650.

Judge Pickering said he doubted PickMe would’ve been a match for the general post, had it been a real idea, but that the victims’ naivety did not reduce Chimmalee’s moral culpability.

Crown prosecutor David Morters SC argued the deceit was motivated by greed.

But Chimmalee’s laywyer, Meredith Phelps, submitted her client was supporting her family financially, but that submission was disputed by the prosecution.

The court heard Chimmalee has one child in Thailand and two in Australia.

Ms Phelps argued Chimmalee suffered from anxiety and depression linked to a range of trauma including her dad’s death and a miscarriage.

The Thai national, who most recently lived in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield South, required an interpreter in court.

Chimmalee was sentenced to an aggregate sentence of four years and two months, with a non-parole period of two years and 10 months, for two counts of dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception.

She had pleaded guilty to both charges and will be eligible to apply for parole on December 20 this year, because her sentence was backdated to her arrest on February 2020. She has been in custody since the arrest.

Chimmalee is due to face trial for separate fraud offences in May next year.